


Sometimes We Forget

by Kiterie



Series: 100 themes [25]
Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-16
Updated: 2009-12-16
Packaged: 2017-11-27 13:26:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/662507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiterie/pseuds/Kiterie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Memory is fluid, sometimes we forget and sometimes later we remember.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The boy chewed on his lip, tears threatening to spill over and down his cheeks. The soft brown hair framing his face and the pink skin of recent scar cutting across his cheeks only seemed to add to the dejected look. He looked utterly pathetic standing there looking up at Kakashi with that pleading expression. It made Kakashi feel liked he'd kicked a puppy, a big, brown-eyed, overly cute one at that. How could such a simple 'no' have led to him getting _this_ look. It wasn't fair, he had a weak spot for dogs and the little boy in front of him did the kicked puppy look better than Pakkun. "No," he grumbled again.

The boy swallowed, looked down for a moment then tilted his head up enough to look up at him. "Please? I promise not to tell anyone..."

"You're just going to keep bothering me if I say no right?" Kakashi said, sighing and getting an exasperated look on his face as the younger boy nodded. "Fine..." he sighed again, knowing it would bug him until the end of his days if he didn't make the puppy eyes stop.

The brown eyes lit up and the boy grinned then threw himself at Kakashi, wrapping his arms around the young shinobi and knocking the unsuspecting boy to ground. "Thank you!" he chirped then leaned over and kissed Kakashi on the nose.

"Gah, don't do that," Kakashi whined, blushing furiously. He didn't however push the other boy away. "What's your name anyway?"

"Iruka," the boy laughed, rubbing the back of his neck and laughing, clearly embarrassed by his own bad manners. "Sorry," he said getting up.

"First rule of being a ninja..." Kakashi said, standing and dusting himself off. "...don't attack your teammates."

"Okay," Iruka laughed, the over enthusiastic giggle of a small child that seemed to cause their entire body to be incapable of remaining still.

"Second rule... no more puppy eyes." It was an unfair advantage and none of his training had prepared him for how to deal with it.

Iruka laughed again, then grinned mischievously up at Kakashi. "What about on the enemy. If we get in trouble I can get us out."

It was obvious even to Kakashi, that given that grin, Iruka got into trouble a _lot_ and likely out of it just as often. "Fine, but only on the enemy," he said, taking the younger boy's hand and pulling him towards the courtyard of the family estate.


	2. Foreign

"That was a pretty clever trick Min," Jiraiya laughed, watching the two boys while they played.

The blond smiled and shrugged as though it was nothing, but the glistening of tears in the corners of his eyes gave away that it was definitely more than nothing. "He needed this. They keep putting him in teams with older kids. The teenagers either treat him like a baby or simply don't know how to play and he won't drop his guard in front of them long enough to draw it out of them. "

Understanding the problem all too well, Jiraiya nodded. "He did need this, you both did. It's good to see him laughing again."

"I was starting to wonder if it was an emotion completely foreign to him at this point," Minato said softly, his voice cracking slightly.

"It's hard to smile when you've just lost your mother and your father won't come out of his room most days." Jiraiya looked over his shoulder through the open doorway at the door to his friend's room. "And it doesn't help that there are those in the village that would put the weight of it all on his shoulders."

"It's good then, that there are people like the Uminos to whom compassion is not a foreign emotion, who see a child's sadness and wish to ease that rather than add to it." Minato wiped his eyes and forced the mask of composure back on his face.

Jiraiya nodded, smiling while he watched Kakashi correct Iruka's hold on a shuriken. "It seems to run in the family."


	3. Kick In The Head

Memory is fluid, we forget one thing in favor of remembering another, age filing away these things of the past in favor of things more recent. Sometimes painful memories overlap the happy moments, the significance of their pain making it hard to remember happier times or turning them somehow sad. When we are forcibly reminded of something we had forgotten it is often like a kick in the head or perhaps the heart.

Kakashi was pondering all of this while he stared into pleading, liquid-brown eyes. His heart thudded loudly in his ears at a memory long forgotten coming flooding to the surface.

"Please? I promise not to tell anyone..." Iruka begged, sticking his lower lip out in a very childish fashion.

"Anything for you," Kakashi said sweetly, leaning forward and kissing the chunin on the nose. "Although we both know you won't have to tell anyone for everyone to know you convinced me to dress up as Santa."

Iruka reached up and touched his nose, confusion written in the furrowed brow for a moment before he laughed at Kakashi's comment. "It's not like anyone over the age of ten will be there."

"So all the teachers are immature brats who resort to puppy eyes?" Kakashi asked, shaking his head.

"You could cast a genjutsu on them..." the chunin suggested helpfully.

Kakashi laughed again and tightened his hold on Iruka's waist. "Oh, yeah, that'd go over great at the next council meeting... the hokage cast a genjutsu on a bunch of teachers just so none of them would recognize him dressed up as Santa."

Iruka grinned and tugged Kakashi down for another kiss. "Just tell them you were... testing their preparedness and they all failed miserably."

"How about I tell them my boyfriend is a cheat and a brat who pulls out the puppy eyes whenever he wants me to do something," Kakashi asked, although he was fairly sure everyone on the council would guess as much.

"I don't either!" Iruka said defensively. "I'll have you know I save my puppy eyes for emergencies and I can't put up with another year of Gai as Santa. He looks even worse in red spandex than green and the fake fur leg warmers do _not_ help."

Kakashi simply laughed and then caught his boyfriend's lips again, silently thanking both fate and Minato for the best Christmas gift ever.


End file.
